Finding a friend in a war zone
by Spartan10007
Summary: What if Requiem wasn't the only forerunner planet still in existence. If so who would be in charge of finding them. This is the story of Serpent Squads leader, Spartan-SV21, who will unknowingly find a friend in a war zone. This is my first Halo fanfic so go easy on me.
1. Chapter 1

One night in the cold depths of outer space a gigantic ship known as Nevont is currently making it's way to an uncharted area, far away from any military base. Checking the ships hardware and mechanics is the Chief Technician, Gypsee. To the left of her, checking the weapons diagnostics, was the an engineer named, Jimmy. After a few hours of silence Jimmy decided to make conversation with Gypsee.

"So...ma'am?" He began slowly, trying to judge her reaction, "What do you think of the Spartans on the ship?"

Gypsee not wanting to talk with him merely said, "They're ok, I guess".

"Did you hear about the squad leader of the Serpent Squad?" He asked expectantly. But Jimmy is making the mistake many noobs make, he's gossiping. Everyone had on the ship had the highest respect for what the crew considered to be 'their Spartans'. He didn't know Gypsee well enough to speak so personally with her. He also failed to notice her growing agitation.

"Yes," she replied, sharply. What about him?"

"He seems to serious," Jimmy commented, wishing Gypsee would fill him in on the mysterious Spartans. "I wonder why he doesn't relax when off duty. Even his squad does something to take the edge off."

"You don't want to know" Gypsee says, mostly to herself, although Jimmy heard what she said. "What do you mean?" He asks.

"Well we have time to spare so if you're quiet, corporal, then I'll tell you, understood?" Gypsee says.

"Yes ma'am" He replies

"Good, now it all started years ago" She began.

-Gypsee's POV-

It was a routine night aboard the Nevont, a space cruiser, whose objective was to branch out and search for any other Promethean planets. Gypsee was currently in the engineering bay watching over the ship and checking to make sure every aspect of the ship was running at it's best. Everything was going smoothly, until.

*Alarm* Warning Warning approaching Unidentified Planet. Brace for impact. Repeat Brace for Impact.

"What the hell was that?" Gypsee shouted, searching her board for answers, as the ship came to an abrupt stop. Gypsee starting checking each screen seeing the same result: static. Gypsee headed out of the engineering bay while pilots and engineers were scrambling around trying to figure out what was going on.

As soon as she made it to the bridge she was met by a familiar sight, which she was somewhat used to seeing, a Spartan line up. This normally occurred whenever the ship was faced with a problem that it couldn't handle from space. As Gypsee entered she noticed that the Captain was concluding the mission brief with a new squad that had just arrived on the ship named, Serpent Squad.

"That will be all for now, dismissed" The captain said with a dismissing salute. The Spartans respectively saluted the captain and began to leave with the captain looking out of the bridge viewport. On their way out Gypsee notices the leader of the squad, Spartan-SV21. He had a scar on the left side of his face from the top of his forehead to the side of his chin. Even with the scar he still seemed like he was the kind of guy that someone could easily make a good friend out of while still being deadly on the battle field.

"Captain" Gypsee says with a salute.

"Major" He greets with a return salute.

"What may I help you with" He asks.

"Sir what happened to the ship, all of the hardware is going haywire" She replies.

"Well it would seem that we have found what we are looking for"

"You mean..."

"Yes Major, another planet similar to Requiem. Except..." He begins to trail off.

"What is it sir?" Gypsee asks. "Apparently we have noticed parts of the planet and clouds of something that I have recognized before when I was still a sergeant".

"What is it" Gypsee asked obviously concerned for the crew and ship's safety.

"I can tell you with only two words" The captain states. He then turns around and looks her in the eyes, the concern and fear for his crew was obvious as he said those two words that she could never forget.

The Flood.

How do you think it is, it might be short, but remember this is my first halo fic that i wrote.


	2. Chapter 2

"The flood!? On a forerunner planet? Weren't all flood reminents wiped out when the master chief destroyed the third halo?" Gypsee says. "Apparently not" replied the captain. The ships A.I. then appeared on a console next to the captain, the crew called it Blitz, due to the fact that it always wanted to complete the task at hand quickly and thoroughly. "Captain" it said "All Spartan squads are ready for deployment except for Serpent squad, due to their pelican being damaged. It could take some time." "Time isn't a luxury that we have right now" the captain said. "Sir. What if I got to work on the pelican, it would save time and get the Spartans into the fight faster" "How long do you estimate the repairs will take Gypsee?" "About an hour or so sir, depending on how up to date the equipment is" Gypsee said, joking about equipment. "Just get it done" "Yes sir" Gypsee then leaves the Bridge and heads towards the hanger, or what was left of it.

Once she entered the hanger she could see the damage that had been done to it. A landing pad had been obliterated and there were injured personnel being carried off in stretchers, and some being trapped underneath destroyed debris. Gypsee then saw the pelican that she had the work on, one if it's wings was nearly broken off and an engine was smoking. "Looks easy enough" Gypsee said. She began to maneuver her way through the chaos that took place and made it to the ship. Once she got a good look at the wing she began to take some tools out that would confuse anyone who didn't know what they were for.

Just as Gypsee predicted, the repairs took about an hour. As she was leaving she saw the leader of Serpent Squad loading his troops into the now fixed pelican. "Alright, Polonsky get your sniper and get in the pelican" "Yes sir". As soon as the fourth, and last, Spartan was loaded he looked towards Gypsee and yell "Thanks for the repair job" before walking into the pelican as the pad began to move downwards, ready to depart. "You welcome" Gypsee yelled back as it sank into the ship. Gypsee then proceeded to leave the hanger to move to the engineering bay to see what she could do there. As soon as she got there and saw the similar chaos that she had seen in the hanger she thought to herself, "This is gonna be a long day".

* * *

As the pelican started to leave through the open hatch of the ship he Spartan SV21 looked at his men through his visor. On his right was his second in command, Jack, one of his best friends from the academy. They had gone through hell and back together and Jack always seemed to find hope in a dire situation. To the left was Josh, the demolitions expert, he once bragged that he could defuse a covenant bomb in under 10 seconds and under pressure. Of course, none of the other team members wanted a demonstration. Cleaning his rifle, was Polonsky, he was the replacement for the previous sniper that was killed by the end of a gravity hammer. The last person, in the cockpit, was Jenny, although most of the crew saw her as one of the best pilots she was actually SV21's long lost cousin, who had been presumed dead, from a planet that had been glassed by a covenant fleet. After going through extreme hardships, she was finally able to be placed in the spartan program. After serving with her squad, for a 5 month period with some fighting experience under her belt, she was finally promoted to lieutenant and put into a new unit. Not her cousin's, but still, she could follow his career and see him once in a while.

Back on the pelican, Gypsee made her way to the cockpit and watched the pilot dodging masses of spore clouds.

"Ma'am" The pilot said.

"What is it?"

"I'm gonna need a clear LZ to set us down. Otherwise it's too hot to set up a base and establish a forward position"

"Understood. I'll go tell SV21. Good job," she said as she left the cockpit and started towards the aft section of the ship.

She made her way quickly to the back of the ship and started towards SV21. Once she got to him she began to brief him about the situation.

"Apparently we need to clear out a couple of hostiles before we can bring in the combat controllers."

She said. "OK, everyone get set for battle" He said, it had been a pretty boring ride and he was ready for a little action. After everyone was ready the pilot opened the back of the ship, letting them jump off the ship onto the flood infested planet.

Once they were foot wet, almost literally, they began the make a small perimeter around the area. After scouting the area, and not seeing anything at the moment they decided to order in a fire base from the ship. While it was coming down and being constructed, two more pelicans dropped in three squads of marines, equipped with flame based weaponry. They were armed with flamethrowers and had incendiary ammo for their ammunition instead of standard rounds.

"OK, as soon as the base is finished I want warthogs out here so we can get a better range of the area" SV21 said.

"Sir, yes,sir!" the marines replied before hurrying off to set up defenses around the base. Meanwhile Josh and Polonsky were chatting together about what kinds of enemies they would be up against.

"So," Polonsky said. "What do you think is out there anyway?"

"I don't know and I don't want to know, but we're probably gonna find out whether we want to or not."

Jack then walked by then with his machine gun in his hand, "Can't wait to try out this gun, one hell of a turkey shooter."

"Yeah you would say that wouldn't you." The SV21 had walked up behind them and gave Jack a friendly punch on the shoulder.

Once the firebase was made it started to produce as many warthogs as needed for a full recon sweep.

"OK everyone," The SV21 addressed the marines and his squad from the top of a warthog. "I need my squad the get into a warthog to find a proper area for a forward command center. Once we find one we'll call in pelicans to transport marines to the site. That's all for now. Good luck and dismissed." Then he jumped into the driver's seat of the warthog and began to drive off with his squad following behind.

As they drove away he thought to himself, This is going to be interesting.

A.N. Lets see if anyone can tell where I got Polonsky from. Also I have read the two reviews and I am aware of the other forerunner planets besides Requiem. Besides this is a fanfic, it doesn't have to be accurate and I don't see why it matters.


	3. Chapter 3

A.N. My posts may be a bit sporadic so if it takes to long then I apologize. Anyways here's Chapter 3 and read on.

* * *

As Spartan SV21 and his squad drove through the flood infested landscape he couldn't help but wonder, why they hadn't run into something by now?

"Hey SV21," Jack yelled from his own warthog.

"What is it Jack?" SV21 yelled back.

"When are we going to run into something what we can shoot? I'm bored."

"How the hell should I know, keep your head on Jack I'm sure that we'll run into something eventually."

Unfortunately for SV21 he was right. After another 5 miles they see a figure limping across the path. With no idea of what to do they all slowed they vehicles to a stop and exited them. Probably not the best idea, but they decided that it would be safer if they stuck together. Once gathered together they start to approach the limping figure cautiously.

"Hey" A marine yelled. "Do you need any help"

The figure only stopped and turned in their direction. They could finally make out what the figure looked like. It looked as though its gut was completely sucked into itself and the head was merely hanging to the side while tendrils were sticking out of its neck.

This caused some of the marines to cringe, "What the fu-" SV21 was about to say before it let out a large wail. Everyone had to cover their ears to prevent themselves from going deaf.

"RRAAAAAHH-"

It was cut off when a gunshot was heard. Everyone looked to see Polonsky aiming his sniper where the things head should have been.

"Finally, damn thing wouldn't shut up"

"Hey, why didn't you let me shoot it" Jack said humorously.

"OK, check the body for any identification." SV21 said, getting everyone organized again.

As 4 of the marines started towards the body, SV21 gathered his Spartans around for a meeting.

"OK, it appears that we're not going to get off of this planet without a fight, so get into your warthogs and be prepared to return to base. As soon as I check in with the marines we're done".

A chorus of enthusiastic, "Yes, sir!" Answered before they headed towards their separate vehicles.

"Hey, Sergeant Major." Jenny yelled.

"Yes, Lieutenant," SV21 replied.

"Don't get yourself killed; I don't want to lose my cousin a second time."

"Heh, me either Jen, me either," SV21 said as he headed towards the 4 marines and Jenny went to her warthog.

"Ok soldiers, what did you find?" He asked.

"Sir," he replied. "We have unfortunately found nothing that could benefit us."

"OK, get loaded up into the warthogs it's time to go." SV21 said responded as he led them back to base.

As they loaded up they failed to notice the tendrils beginning to move. As they drove off they were unknowingly being followed by creatures.

The ride back to the base was long and uneventful. As they entered their base zone they noticed base turrets being constructed as if they expected trouble. Once the warthogs were parked they unloaded the soldiers who went to their barracks, except for the leader of the squad. SV21 had to report to the captain of the Nevont on his findings.

Once in the CIC he started up an uplink to the ship's bridge.

On the ship, Gypsee is assisting the captain in pulling reports from each sector. Some had nothing to report, some would say that they met little resistance, and some would say that they were attacked. All of these came in by message at the same time.

"Didn't anyone actually try to establish an uplink instead of sending messages to the ship," Gypsee thought to herself while transferring message after message on the console to the captain who was quickly skimming them over and moving onto another one. It was going like that for 2 hours straight until…

"Sir." Gypsee said.

"Yes Lieutenant?"

"I'm actually receiving a transmission for Sector S. Orders, sir?"

"Send it to my console. I'm getting tired of looking through messages."

Gypsee then connected the uplink to the captain's console and SV21 appeared on the screen. Surprised that the new squad would actually use this type of communications method, Gypsee forgot about the messages and watched the conversation going on.

"Captain," SV21 said, with a salute.

"Sergeant Major" he replied impatiently returning the salute. "How goes your sector?"

"Well sir, he started. On a patrol we ran into an insurgent"

"Do you know who it was?" The captain asked, although he already knew the answer, even if SV21 didn't.

"No sir, we think that it is some sort of infection though. We have yet to uncover more about these creatures."

"Hmm…well, thank you for checking in Sergeant Major. That is all." The captain replied and closed the channel.

Once the transmission ended the captain saw Gypsee looking at the console. An idea came to his mind. "Lieutenant," he said.

Startled Gypsee quickly looked up, "Yes Captain?"

"How would you like to get your feet wet?"

"Sir?" she replied, her eyes wide. The captain wasn't much for joking around.

"It would only be temporary."

"Well Captain, I'm not sure. I haven't really been that often and you know that."

"I do know but I need someone on the ground to collect samples for our scientists to study."

"Why can't you get one of the scientists to go then, sir?" She asked, hopefully.

"Because you and I both know that their curiosity would probably lead them and the others to their death," the captain replied.

He had a point; scientists usually tended to get over excited and tried to experiment on whatever they could without any security precautions.

"Do I have to?" She complained.

"Yes you do." The captain let out a small chuckle "You remind me of my niece, always trying to find a way out of doing something that involved the opposite of what she was accustomed to."

"Ha ha, very funny Captain. I'll go get ready for the ride." Gypsee replied as she began to pack up for the trip. She took some mechanical devices and a couple video cameras. Once packed, she made her way to the hangar. A pilot intercepted her and let her know he was in charge of getting her to the "planet". After getting in the pelican the floor began to descend. As it was lowering Gypsee wondered what new creatures she would find.

* * *

A.N. OK that about wraps up Chapter 3. Reviews would be appreciated and I'll see you later.


End file.
